My Lady's Love
by JessieJay13
Summary: The Hale twins might be psychically linked, but that doesn't mean Derek enjoys knowing how his sister feels all the time. Especially when what she's usually feeling are obnoxious, gooey, sappy feelings for her best friend Lydia. The situation is only exacerbated when small children with bouquets of flower-like weeds are involved.


**A/N: another Laura Appreciation Week fic from 2017 - Laura/Lydia with some Hale Twin fun thrown in ;)**

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"—and the study wasn't even a double blind," Lydia was saying, voice dripping with disdain. "I can't _believe_ they got funding for _anything._" She hitched her purse up higher on her shoulder and flipped her hair.

Derek's mind was invaded but a sudden rush of fierce appreciation for strawberry blonde curls and designer heels that clicked alongside the sidewalk with every step, and he turned to glare at his sister.

Laura didn't even notice him glaring, too caught up in watching her best friend's every move with hearts in her eyes. Like usual.

Derek rolled his eyes and lamented for the hundred millionth time that he was a twin. Not that he didn't love his sister, because he did. He just didn't love being able to read her mind (or, more specifically, being unable to _not_ read her mind most of the time). Why couldn't they have had a cool werewolf twin thing, like the ones from the next pack over who could physically combine into one big superwolf...creature...thing? Surely that would be better than being privy to every wistful sigh of his sister's pathetic crush.

Lydia was still talking about sciency things that Derek couldn't keep up with. He was much more of a literature and history and languages nerd himself, but he knew Laura had studied up on this subject. She was probably following along pretty well. She had more practice after all, what with having Lydia as a best friend for the last ten years. Derek was only hanging out with them today, heading for a coffee shop downtown before Lydia had to jet off to her early enrolled college courses, because Stiles was busy and Derek had nothing better to do without him.

Apparently Lydia's blouse was to _die_ for and Laura was feeling both jealous of it and blessed that she was allowed to witness it on Lydia. Derek was seriously starting to regret coming along. His bond with Laura weakened with physical distance; if he had stayed at home, he wouldn't have been subjected to this. Why had he thought this was a good idea?

Laura had a bit of a thing for Lydia when she was being ruthless, Derek knew (and wished he didn't). It got her a little hot under the collar when Lydia tore somebody a new one, when she eviscerated idiots and wrongdoers with her rapier wit. And whatever Lydia's current technobabble translated to, it had to be something along those lines with the vibes Derek was getting from Laura's mind. He just thanked every god theoretically in existence that he wasn't getting the actual mental images too.

Derek almost ran directly into Laura's back when she stopped in the middle of the sidewalk abruptly. He shook himself back into the present moment and leaned around Laura to see what the hold up was. Before he'd even completed the motion, his brain was assaulted by a solid wall of what felt like the mental equivalent of a squee of utter joy. It was almost painful in its exuberance.

Derek had to pinch Laura hard in the side as payback, but Laura barely noticed. She just flapped a hand behind her in his direction and hissed, "Shhh, this is very important!"

There was a little boy on the sidewalk ahead of them. They were just outside a cafe, one of the ones with the little gated patio area full of round tables with umbrellas, just a block down from the cafe the three of them had been aiming for. The gate was open though, and a group of adults at the nearest table were keeping watch on them so he assumed the wayward child belonged to them.

The little boy had a handful of flowers. Well, they were probably weeds technically, but they were still pretty colorful little plants even if the trailing root system had been yanked out of the dirt along with the blossoms and were still dripping dirt all over his shoes.

The kid was standing tall and proud in front of Lydia, who looked a little taken aback. He held out his bouquet with a flourish, beaming up at her.

"Good afternoon, my lady!" he said grandly. "I am Sir Jimmy. Your hair is very shiny."

He bowed clumsily at the waist and brandished the flowers again, clearly intending for her to take them. Lydia blinked down at him for a moment, mouth hanging open just a bit, and then glanced over at the table of adults.

"Sorry," the one that was probably the kid's mom said. "We've been reading Knights of the Round Table bedtime stories lately."

"Oh," Lydia said. "So you're knight, are you?" she asked the boy and he un-bowed to nod eagerly.

"I'm gonna ride across the countryside and fight dragons!" he said, swishing the flowers through the air like they were a sword. Some of the tiny petals fell off.

Laura made a strangled sort of noise that meant she was holding back one of those joyful squees Derek had gotten a mental blast of earlier and took hold of Derek's arm like she wanted to make sure he was seeing this too. Derek wondered what she was getting on her side of their mental link; probably faint exasperation, a bit of amusement, and a whole lot of resignation to go with it.

"Fight dragons, you say," Lydia said. "Well, that's very brave of you, Sir Jimmy. Will you be fighting giants too?"

Sir Jimmy gasped._"Giants?"_

"Giants," Lydia repeated gravely. She bent down to be more on his level and Laura's grip on Derek's arm tightened enough to be painful. "King Arthur fought a giant. Did you know that?"

Sir Jimmy shook his head wildly.

"It was a very bad giant," Lydia told him. "All the townspeople were scared of it. But King Arthur was brave and good and he fought the giant so the people would be safe again. Do you think you could fight giants like that?"

"Yes!" Sir Jimmy said. "I'm gonna fight all the giants!" All of a sudden, he seemed to remember the flowers in his hand. He held them out again. "For you, my lady!"

This time Lydia took them. "Why, thank you, good sir," she said. "I wish you luck in all your travels."

She curtsied. Sir Jimmy laughed and clapped and stomped his feet, looking back over his shoulder to make sure his mom was watching the show. Derek had to admit, it was all really cute.

Laura seemed to have short-circuited though. She was frozen somewhere between a smile and a laugh, still gripping onto Derek's arm and staring at Lydia. Their bond was flooded with what Derek could only describe as utter, dopey adoration. It was sickening.

And it was made even worse when Lydia turned back to them. She had torn the trailing roots off the weeds until only the flower-like part remained, a few petals on a longish stem. With a small smile, she stepped in close to Laura—whose mind was emitting a constant high pitched buzz of overload—and tucked the flower into Laura's hair.

"For you, my lady," Lydia said. "And for the record, your hair is very shiny too." Then she winked, a smirk on her glossed lips, and took off down the sidewalk toward the cafe once more.

Laura stood frozen for another second before abruptly throwing her arm up in front of Derek's chest.

"Pinch me," she said breathlessly. "Prove to me that actually happened before I have a coronary."

Obligingly, Derek pinched her. She yelped in pain and slapped him in the stomach like he hadn't done exactly what she asked of him. But Derek's mind was so flooded with his sister's elation that he couldn't even be mad about it. He just waved her off.

"Go on, you lovesick dork," he said. "Go win your lady-love. I'm going home where I can't feel the sappiness."

Laura was halfway down the street before he even finished the sentence, falling in at Lydia's side like that was where she was always meant to be. Honestly Derek was pretty sure it was.


End file.
